A capacity house at the Athenaeum Theatre on Monday night enthusiastically applauded Nick Tipa’s one-man work Babyface.
The play and its acting are explosive. The timing is perfect with remarkably only isolated cases of Tipa losing the pace.
Babyface is going through transformative times in his and his parents’ lives. As he tidies up his childhood into boxes for his next move, each item from teddy bear to bicycle bell conjure memories both pleasant and unpleasant.
Babyface is an imaginative boy with an innocence which leads him into trouble. He also has the backing of some pretty formidable friends.
Tipa, writer and actor, moves between no less than three characters within each scene with incredible speed and accuracy. School friends and teachers, parents and the wrestling fraternity are distinguished with subtle changes to Tipa’s stature and gesture.
Everything is presented at a dazzling pace. Each character undergoes a measure of development. Playground bullies promise lifelong friendship; a teacher loses his charm and exposes rifts at home.
The cleverly written plot is given a comedic foundation and subtly reveals its denouement. Moments of high trauma are realistically portrayed.
The physical demands on Tipa are also extraordinary. He slivers through a ladder before rapidly scaling it. He charges around the tight limits of the set, slam dunks himself while fighting his inner demons and tiptoes through a moonlit garden.
Tipa changes scenes by reimagining his three props to create a wall and a tower, a fire engine, a door and a bed. It all plays out on and around a wrestler’s mat. The analogy is fundamentally brilliant.
Tipa’s backstage crew, director Sara George, stage management Sofian Scott, music and sound Zac Nicholls, lighting Quinn Hardie, photographer Katy Lockwood and videographer Ashley Heydon all created a truly memorable and amazingly funny event.
Review by Marian Poole
